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Entire Librarylesson-planFifth GradeReading & WritingWhat's the Theme? Analyzing Character Motivation
Lesson Plan
What's the Theme? Analyzing Character Motivation
Bring theme to life with Chris Van Allsburg's *The Sweetest Fig*, a story with a great message for young readers to discover. This lesson pairs a wonderful read-aloud with activities and fun videos to keep your students engaged.
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Learning Objectives
Students will understand that the theme is the central idea or underlying message of the text.
The adjustment to the whole group lesson is a modification to differentiate for children who are English learners.
Introduction
(15 minutes)
- Engage students in a discussion about theme.
- Ask them to think about all the possible themes they may come across in books, poems, or movies. For example: friendship or kindness.
- Organize students into groups.
- In their student groups, have students write a theme they remember on a piece of the 2x2 paper and say it out loud as they write.
- Have them do this continuously in their groups for about a minute, writing as many themes as they can, building ideas off of their teammates.
- Once the minute is up, have the students work together to organize their themes in different categories, whatever they choose.
- Have some groups share out their themes and how they sorted them.
Beginning
- Provide several examples of themes from familiar stories in lieu of having students come up with examples.
- Organize the themes as a whole class.
Intermediate
- Provide a student-friendly definition for the word "theme."